Thursday, July 21, 2016

Reparations.me is a website by Seattleite Natasha Marin, that is dedicate to the pursuit of having affluent whites divest themselves of their 400 years of oppression by giving it (whatever that might be. We'll get to that in a minute) to the needs of People of Color. Or something.

Her bio/explanation:

Natasha Marin is a conceptual artist working across disciplines and media to collaborate with People to create opportunities for meaningful IRL and digital engagement.

Reparations began as a social media experiment on Facebook on July 15, 2016.

What if you actually did something meaningful for someone before the end of the year?

What if a stranger restored your belief in humanity, if only for a moment, by supporting you and allowing you to claim something you need in a material way?

I invite People of Color to ask for what we need to feel better, be happier, be more productive by posting in this space. These may be both material and immaterial requests.

I invite people who identify as White to offer services or contributions to People of Color in need of time, energy, substantive care, and support.

I don't want to put limitations on this social experiment, but here's how I imagine it might work:

POC 1: I need a massage. This week.White Person 1: [posts Groupon with code for redemption]

POC2: I need therapy. I can spend $10 a session.White Person 2: [posts contact information to a therapist who they have made arrangements with.]

POC 3: I need groceries. White Person 3: "I'll get them for you. PM me and I'll send an Amazon Fresh or Safeway delivery. You just pick out what you want. I have a $200 limit."

POC 4: I'm too upset to make dinner. I live in Seattle.White Person 4: "Come over to my house for dinner, bring a friend if you like. PM me and I'll send you the address, or can I order delivery to you? What kind of food do you like?"

POC 5: I need a quiet place to work on _________.White Person 5: "I have an office, spare room, house, that will be unoccupied on the following dates, would you like to use that space? I can send pictures ..."

POC 6: I want to scream and cuss at someone.White Person 6: "I volunteer as tribute. How do we set this up?"

POC 7: I want to escape this cruel world in a *Specific Videogame* but can't afford it on Steam right now. This is not a crisis, I just don't trust people easily and want to see if this works.White Person 7: Thank you for giving me the chance to do something concrete and relatively easy. I was quietly hating myself for doing nothing.

And now while you are ruminating on how far out of touch with reality and history people are I offer this for the next installment of the world gone mad. Notice the progressive cops reaction to the scene.

In the past few days, I have been presented with two op ed pieces that are representative of a changing of the guard, so to speak, in terms of the leftist tone. During the Bush administrations, the "Progressives" of the time, screeched at the top of their lungs that dissent was patriotic. Under Obama, we were told that you must support your leaders. You may remember being told by a certain opportunistically racist comedian that Obama is like your father and you should listen to him. Even the Daily Kos was confused. Such has been the tone of the socialists of last eight years. But all of that ends with the RNC convention. It is, after all, someone else's turn in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. That's how it works, right?

Now we have two puff pieces from two ends of the leftist political fourth estate. These are by no means representative of the minds of the elites that are making the real moves towards their own ends, but it is a good indication as any into the mind of the rank-and-file.

From the Gawker, I present you "Who Will Win the Upcoming Civil War?" . A note before you proceed: I will advise you first to remove any beverages from around your electronics. I come to know this from experience. There is so much that is wrong with this article I can scarcely find the time to go into significant detail. The presumptions that war is a "you have all of the green guys, and I have all of the blue" is as absurd as it is infantile. I will not offer any additional commentary but if you want a real knee slapper, please do yourself a favor and read the comments. I had originally given thought that this was satire. No, gentle readers, it is truly the work of a true believer.

It starts out: "Trump is the most brazenly authoritarian figure to secure the nomination of a major American political party. He expresses his support for all manner of strongmen, and his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has actually worked for one: former Ukrainian president and Vladimir Putin ally Viktor Yanukovich."

That's interesting. I only wish their microscope had been a little more inward focused when we raised concerns that Obama's ear whisperers were filled with an assortment of advocates of the worst sort of communist, identity politics, and muslim expansionism this side of GITMO.

"In [the case that Trump gives unlawful orders], our military men and women, who swear to uphold the Constitution and a civilian chain of command, would be forced to choose between obeying the law and serving the wishes of someone who has explicitly expressed his utter lack of respect for it."

The Oath of Enlistment states: "I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

"According to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice". There is the onion in obeying unconstitutional orders. Upon looking at it, I had not realized that you will not find the same verbiage in the Oath of Office that commissioned Officers must take. I can assure you, however, that they are also under the same rules of UCMJ that everyone else must abide by.

"But what about Katrina"? I agree that the National Guard was completely wrong in what they did, however well meaning it may have been at the time. Keep in mind that the military authority was under civilian direction. They were an instrument of the terminally incompetent and corrupt state and local government. It is not an excuse, but lessons were learned. Education of what the Uniform Code of Military Justice is and how it relates to disregarding an enumerated right in the Constitution is why groups like the Oathkeepers are so important. If no one is told it is wrong, how will they know?

And he concludes: "Trump is not only patently unfit to be president, but a danger to America and the world. Voters must stop him before the military has to." Both salacious and thought provoking, but for me, it does not invoke terror given the present occupier-in-chief. He expanded the Patriot Act to dizzying heights, bombed on behalf of Al Qaeda, and established ISIS which cascaded into flooding Europe with Jihadi terrorists. Then there is all of the economic warfare he has waged with all of the expansion and creation of new government entitlements and power grabs. I do not see how much more an administration can undermine the West, but we still have some months.

There is a common thread between the two articles. The left has understood that they cannot win this by themselves. As with any argument the left has produced, it always comes from a place of perpetual victimhood and weakness. For their success they must have another group to do what they know they cannot, namely win against the American conservative gun owner in a stand up fight. This should be of no surprise to anyone here. If you want to know why they are after your semi-autos, this is it.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

It was brought to my attention that Mr. Kerodin and his one friend, (of whom I have been reasonably assured is not imaginary), have been obsessing/crushing on the Old Man and I again. It is that or trying to get more popularity through negative attention. Well, ladies and gentlemen of the jury in the court of public opinion, here it is.

See Exhibit A:

Wow. Just look at all of those adjectives. "Red Mikey is the Gold Standard for Intellectual Hypocrites?" Oh my. Sipsey in a blogger brownout? Oy vey! What to make of that? Feeling better from better regulating meds is not a miracle cure. Not wanting to jerk your readers around from being unable to have my full attention due to very temporary real world obligations is, to me, just responsible. Had he a job and a family, this would be obvious.

His comment and many like them have given me the "I have seen this all before" deja vu. It was from Mike's first public internet exposure with another former ward of the State, a Mr. Martin Lindstedt.

"You know, the first guy to attack me on the Internet as "'Red Mike' Vanderboegh" was Martin Lindstedt, a Missouri neo-Nazi, self-described "modern militiaman," claimed Identity "pastor" and, wait for it, convicted child molester. You ought to look up his screeds about me. They are legendary for rhetorical pus and vomit, so this is nothing new."

"Look, I am busy enough as it is. "Kerodin" will eventually self-implode -- probably as the result of over-reach*, discovery under oath in a court case or a FOIA request -- and in any case is a tertiary side-show of the main event. From the rumors, anybody could make him go away with a simple but thorough private investigator's background check, something I lack the funds to do. But when that happens, and it will happen, the deluded folks who embrace him will run from him like the amoral plague-carrier he is. However, just at the moment I have bigger fish to fry. If others want to defend me that is their business and I am grateful, but it is evident from the friends I have lost and the precious time and effort that has been wasted already that anything I do will be counterproductive."

I will not link to Lindstedt's posts as they are archived on whitenationalist.org. I'll spare you the discomfort and condense it a bit here. During the rise of the Militia Movement in the 90's in response to Waco and the AWB of 94, all assorted forms of weirdos and cockroaches came out of the woodwork to ride the wave. Here you see the introduction of Alex Jones. The benign John Birchers and LaRouchies took a break from their squabbling and took an interest. And, of course, the Nazis and Kluxers took a pause in their mutual disgust of each other to see if they could breathe some new life into their organisations, fueled now by a militarized people with a new found government resentment. For many decades and for obvious reasons, no one wanted what the white power movement was selling. They did figure out though, if you could serve the message wrapped up in a "mutual protection and values" package, it is much more palatable to push the alienation of "it is only us vs. the world". This should sound familiar to you by now. This was the same sirens song behind the failed Citadel.

I will give Martin the credit that at least he had broken new ground in internet trolling. At the time, no one had seen anything like that before. It really was spectacular in its vitriol, persistence, and venom. A little too over the top though. Once he was exposed and the message was ruined, he retreated into the safety of the bowels of the religious arm of the white nationalist movement and was nary publicly heard from again until he was brought up on a few charges for things I cannot even mention in polite company. Needless to say, he was not missed in the Militia Movement nor in its incarnations leading up to today's III%. Since his incarceration, Mr. Lindstedt's sphere of influence is in an absolute train wreck of a youtube channel. I really would feel embarrassed for him were it not for all of the bile he threw the Old Mans direction 20 years ago. You can say whatever you want to about that horror of a human being, at least he had the good taste to take his hat and leave when asked.

Which brings us back to Mr. Kerodin. He had tried to mirror the sentiments of the III% while using tactics and verbiage of a failed recycled christian identity/nazi platform. He got predictable results. His language was the same as Martins. but he was able to update the tactics a bit by introducing blogs and other social media as a social engineering vehicle. It worked for a time. At least in that he had outpaced his predecessor. By dominating the message, he was able to control it for a time in certain circles. That is, of course, all over now. As with all things that receive the antiseptic of light, once his tactics and intentions were made demonstrably obvious by his own actions, support for him quickly dissipated. He may try to kick the III%(c) can down the road a little longer, but he will always be a shadow of his former self. Eventually he will get the hint and, perhaps, seek real employment.

Many people have been mad at Mike for many reasons but that cannot deny that he was right about a great many things. It is not that he was born with an unusual clarity and no angels were propped on his shoulder, whispering divine insight. He got the ability to be able to smell a rat from a mile away by being at the ground level of the movement for decades. Furthermore, he was uncompromising about it even when they told him he was wrong because he knew what was at stake. He was 100% spot on with Uncle K and the guy will forever pout in his basement for it. Just like Martin to this day (hint see the comments). That clarity will be sorely missed.

Will there be others like Kerodin that come in the future to try and co-opt the movement? Oh, you bet they will come. But you will also know them now by their tactics and their works. If it does not fit into the litmus test of the catechism and the valediction, you can bet that you are being sold a bill of goods.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

1. Mike is actually doing a bit better now. Not that he is on the road to recovery, but they have been able to make better use of the meds and now he is better coping with its effects. This does not mean that he will resume posting here but it is a definite improvement in his quality of life.

2. I will be taking a brief hiatus from the blog. This does not mean that SSI will be shuddered permanently, but I will need to take a knee and put my energies elsewhere for the moment. Thank you so much for your continued support and understanding.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

I had a comment a few posts back as to what podcasts I would recommend. I know this is a bit of a departure from the normal Tacticool, posts but not everything is bullets and band aids. That misused grey matter in between your ears is the best thing you can spend time and money in developing.

Firearm/Prepper Podcasts:

Pretty much anything on the Firearms Radio Network. Any subject you could want. Reloading, Christian perspectives, historical arms, and yes, even the tacticool. There is simply too much to listen to in one setting so you have to be a bit selective in what you listen to. My favorites are Practically Tactical, the AR-15 Podcast, and the Precision Rifle Podcast. Unfortunately the latter seems to be defunct. I hope it is temporary because they have some great stuff to put out. Do check out the old episodes for some great pointers and reviews on guns and gear I could only dream of one day affording.

The Survival Podcast. In my humble opinion the finest podcast in the "all around" category. I enjoy the history portion and the quality of content is second to none. I find his politics generally boring, (though the anarchist slant I am beginning to come around to), and he can be a tad heavy with the condescension. He still has incredibly thought provoking discussions with the guests and the expert panel is a wonderful resource to boot. I have never walked away thinking my time was not well spent.

In the Rabbit Hole: How does it stand out from other survival podcats? It does seem to have a more urban outlook but other than that it does the same great job of interviews and personal commentary that most others do. Worth the listen if you can fit it in.

The Shooting Bench is run by Cope Reynolds and covers a variety of topics od interest to the community. I will confess that this is a very new one to me. So new, in fact, I did not show up on my radar in the original posting. I believe I will enjoy digging into it some more.

Non-Tacticool Podcasts:

I am just finishing up business school but I have come to rely on a few podcasts to keep me up-to-date on the new developments in the business and tech world. I have also found a wealth of knowledge in the interviews of the CEO's and entrepreneurs in regards to leadership. Information to make us all better citizens can sometimes be found in unlikely places. Learning why Matt Mullenweg picks up his own garbage or lessons in building a culture from Zappos is absolutely relevant to helping us build better communities.

Trigger warning: Some of the information comes from the most limp wrist, milquetoast, man-bun and bearded, metrosexual, "Grande, Iced, Sugar-Free, Vanilla Latte With Soy Milk" guzzling, Nancy boys around. You do not have to sit next to them on the bus and you do not have to let them date your daughter. They do, on occasion, offer some very interesting perspectives that you would be foolish to dismiss.

The Start Up Grind is a podcast relevant mainly for the tech start up entrepreneur. They do have some great information on how to bootstrap businesses and create new markets. Skip the SJW, womyns rights, crap. Most everything else is pretty good.

The Harvard Business Review Ideacast should be a mandatory podcast for all leaders and mentors, i.e. everyone. They produce some incredible content related not only to business but how to improve interpersonal communication, build up the team, and project management. Again, not everything will be relevent to you. Download a few episodes that pique your interest and then go from there.

The Art of Manliness: I put this on here knowing full well that I will catch some shit for following some self-help, obviously raised by women, podcast. You do not have to get into the "how to pick up chicks" or "how to shave" episodes in order to appreciate putting more tools in your toolbox of social engineering.

Gary Vaynerchuck's awesome Ask Gary V Show podcast. I am an unabashed Gary V fan. The guy just gets the blood pumping when it comes to motivating me to get my entrepreneurial butt in order. He is not for everyone, but if you ever wanted to build your passion into something you can do for profit until you drop dead, you need to absorb this guy like a sponge.

Stuff you should know: Full disclosure, these guys were so milquetoast, latte guzzling, etc. etc. that I had to stop listening. Be that as it may for the less squeamish, they do have some really interesting discussions on certain topics that will make you smarter. It is just really hard to believe that these people had ancestors that killed saber tooth tigers and made fire with their bare hands.

Once upon a time there was a III Percent podcast, (not to be confused with these guys), but I have not been able to pull it back up. It needed a little polishing but it definitely had potential to be a real voice in the community. I would love to know who did it or if they, (or someone like them), would be willing to put it back out again.

I have come to realize something that is still hard for me to understand to this day. The following may be a shock to some coming from an African American, but the mere fact that it may be shocking to some is prima facie evidence of the sad state of affairs that we are in as Humans.

I used to be so torn inside growing up. Here I am, a young African-American born and raised in Brooklyn, NY wanting to be a cop. I watched and lived through the crime that took place in the hood. My own black people killing others over nothing. Crack heads and heroin addicts lined the lobby of my building as I shuffled around them to make my way to our 1 bedroom apartment with 6 of us living inside. I used to be woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of gun fire, only to look outside and see that it was 2 African Americans shooting at each other.

It never sat right with me. I wanted to help my community and stop watching the blood of African Americans spilled on the street at the hands of a fellow black man. I became a cop because black lives in my community, along with ALL lives, mattered to me, and wanted to help stop the bloodshed.

As time went by in my law enforcement career, I quickly began to realize something. I remember the countless times I stood 2 inches from a young black man, around my age, laying on his back, gasping for air as blood filled his lungs. I remember them bleeding profusely with the unforgettable smell of deoxygenated dark red blood in the air, as it leaked from the bullet holes in his body on to the hot sidewalk on a summer day. I remember the countless family members who attacked me, spit on me, cursed me out, as I put up crime scene tape to cordon off the crime scene, yelling and screaming out of pain and anger at the sight of their loved ones taking their last breath. I never took it personally, I knew they were hurting. I remember the countless times I had to order new uniforms, because the ones I had on, were bloody from the blood of another black victim…of black on black crime. I remember the countless times I got back in my patrol car, distraught after having watched another black male die in front me, having to start my preliminary report something like this:

Suspect- Black/ Male, Victim-Black /Male.

I remember the countless times I canvassed the area afterwards, and asked everyone “did you see who did it”, and the popular response from the very same family members was always, “Fuck the Police, I ain't no snitch, Im gonna take care of this myself". This happened every single time, every single homicide, black on black, and then my realization became clearer.

I woke up every morning, put my freshly pressed uniform on, shined my badge, functioned checked my weapon, kissed my wife and kid, and waited for my wife to say the same thing she always does before I leave, “Make sure you come back home to us”. I always replied, “I will”, but the truth was I was never sure if I would. I almost lost my life on this job, and every call, every stop, every moment that I had this uniform on, was another possibility for me to almost lose my life again. I was a target in the very community I swore to protect, the very community I wanted to help. As a matter of fact, they hated my very presence. They called me “Uncle Tom”, and “wanna be white boy”, and I couldn’t understand why. My own fellow black men and women attacking me, wishing for my death, wishing for the death of my family. I was so confused, so torn, I couldn’t understand why my own black people would turn against me, when every time they called …I was there. Every time someone died….I was there. Every time they were going through one of the worst moments in their lives…I was there. So why was I the enemy? I dove deep into that question…Why was I the enemy? Then my realization became clearer.

I spoke to members of the community and listened to some of the complaints as to why they hated cops. I then did research on the facts. I also presented facts to these members of the community, and listened to their complaints in response. This is what I learned:

Fact: A city where the majority of citizens are black (Baltimore for example) …will ALWAYS have a higher rate of black people getting arrested, it will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks getting stopped, and will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks getting killed, and the reason why is because a city with those characteristics will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks committing crime. The statistics will follow the same trend for Asians if you go to China, for Hispanics if you go to Puerto Rico, for whites if you go to Russia, and the list goes on. It’s called Demographics

Complaint: More black people get arrested than white boys.

Fact: Black People commit a grossly disproportionate amount of crime. Data from the FBI shows that Nationwide, Blacks committed 5,173 homicides in 2014, whites committed 4,367. Chicago’s death toll is almost equal to that of both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined. Chicago’s death toll from 2001–November, 26 2015 stands at 7,401. The combined total deaths during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2015: 4,815) and Operation Enduring Freedom/Afghanistan (2001-2015: 3,506), total 8,321.

Complaint: Blacks are the only ones getting killed by police, or they are killed more.

Fact: As of July 2016, the breakdown of the number of US Citizens killed by Police this year is, 238 White people killed, 123 Black people killed, 79 Hispanics, 69 other/or unknown race.

Fact: Black people kill more other blacks than Police do, and there are only protest and outrage when a cop kills a black man. University of Toledo criminologist Dr. Richard R. Johnson examined the latest crime data from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports and Centers for Disease Control and found that an average of 4,472 black men were killed by other black men annually between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2012. Professor Johnson’s research further concluded that 112 black men died from both justified and unjustified police-involved killings annually during this same period.

Complaint: Well we already doing a good job of killing ourselves, we don’t need the Police to do it. Besides they should know better.

The more I listened, the more I realized. The more I researched, the more I realized. I would ask questions, and would only get emotional responses & inferences based on no facts at all. The more killing I saw, the more tragedy, the more savagery, the more violence, the more loss of life of a black man at the hands of another black man….the more I realized.

I haven’t slept well in the past few nights. Heartbreak weighs me down, rage flows through my veins, and tears fills my eyes. I watched my fellow officers assassinated on live television, and the images of them laying on the ground are seared into my brain forever. I couldn’t help but wonder if it had been me, a black man, a black cop, on TV, assassinated, laying on the ground dead,..would my friends and family still think black lives mattered? Would my life have mattered? Would they make t-shirts in remembrance of me? Would they go on tv and protest violence? Would they even make a Facebook post, or share a post in reference to my death?

All of my realizations came to this conclusion. Black Lives do not matter to most black people. Only the lives that make the national news matter to them. Only the lives that are taken at the hands of cops or white people, matter. The other thousands of lives lost, the other black souls that I along with every cop, have seen taken at the hands of other blacks, do not matter. Their deaths are unnoticed, accepted as the “norm”, and swept underneath the rug by the very people who claim and post “black lives matter”. I realized that this country is full of ignorance, where an educated individual will watch the ratings-driven news media, and watch a couple YouTube video clips, and then come to the conclusion that they have all the knowledge they need to have in order to know what it feels like to have a bullet proof vest as part of your office equipment, “Stay Alive” as part of your daily to do list, and having insurance for your health insurance because of the high rate of death in your profession. They watch a couple videos and then they magically know in 2 minutes 35 seconds, how you are supposed to handle a violent encounter, which took you 6 months of Academy training, 2 – 3 months of field training, and countless years of blood, sweat, tears and broken bones experiencing violent encounters and fine tuning your execution of the Use of Force Continuum. I realized that there are even cops, COPS, duly sworn law enforcement officers, who are supposed to be decent investigators, who will publicly go on the media and call other white cops racist and KKK, based on a video clip that they watched thousands of miles away, which was filmed after the fact, based on a case where the details aren’t even known yet and the investigation hasn’t even begun. I realized that most in the African American community refuse to look at solving the bigger problem that I see and deal with every day, which is black on black crime taking hundreds of innocent black lives each year, and instead focus on the 9 questionable deaths of black men, where some were in the act of committing crimes. I realized that they value the life of a Sex Offender and Convicted Felon, [who was in the act of committing multiple felonies: felon in possession of a firearm-FELONY, brandishing and threatening a homeless man with a gun-Aggravated Assault in Florida: FELONY, who resisted officers who first tried to taze him, and WAS NOT RESTRAINED, who can be clearly seen in one of the videos raising his right shoulder, then shooting it down towards the right side of his body exactly where the firearm was located and recovered] more than the lives of the innocent cops who were assassinated in Dallas protecting the very people that hated them the most. I realized that they refuse to believe that most cops acknowledge that there are Bad cops who should have never been given a badge & gun, who are chicken shit and will shoot a cockroach if it crawls at them too fast, who never worked in the hood and may be intimidated. That most cops dread the thought of having to shoot someone, and never see the turmoil and mental anguish that a cop goes through after having to kill someone to save his own life. Instead they believe that we are all blood thirsty killers, because the media says so, even though the numbers prove otherwise. I realize that they truly feel as if the death of cops will help people realize the false narrative that Black Lives Matter, when all it will do is take their movement two steps backwards and label them domestic terrorist. I realized that some of these people, who say Black Lives Matter, are full of hate and racism. Hate for cops, because of the false narrative that more black people are targeted and killed. Racism against white people, for a tragedy that began 100’s of years ago, when most of the white people today weren’t even born yet. I realized that some in the African American community’s idea of “Justice” is the prosecution of ANY and EVERY cop or white man that kills or is believed to have killed a black man, no matter what the circumstances are. I realized the African American community refuses to look within to solve its major issues, and instead makes excuses and looks outside for solutions. I realized that a lot of people in the African American community lead with hate, instead of love. Division instead of Unity. Turmoil and rioting, instead of Peace. I realized that they have become the very entity that they claim they are fighting against.

I realized that the very reasons I became a cop, are the very reasons my own people hate me, and now in this toxic hateful racially charged political climate, I am now more likely to die,... and it is still hard for me to understand…. to this day.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

If you are not catching podcasts in and around the firearm and survivalist communities, you really are missing out on a lot of great information that is being passed around. The podcasts references the perennial favorite and groundbreaking article the Window War.

The reading and discussion begins at the 11:00 mark. Please bear with a pause in the audio. It starts at 35:15 and picks back up at 46:06. Many, many thanks to Cope Reynolds at the The Shooting Bench for putting this on.

Author's Note: The events related in this story are true. It is set in the real town of Hobbs, New Mexico, although some names have been changed to protect the guilty. It begins early in the morning, the day after tomorrow.

"And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had...and his sling was in his hand; and he drew near to the Philistines."-- 1 Samuel 17:40.

"We Americans have set dangerous precedents. We can rest assured that those pushing for gun control have no intention of stopping short of total gun confiscation. At some point, we who cherish liberty must summon the courage of our forefathers and tell America's tyrants, 'Give me liberty, or give me death!' The longer we wait, the greater the ultimate bloodshed." -- Walter E. Williams, Professor of Economics, George Mason University.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bob Stone stared at the ceiling in the darkness, the popcorn surface barely discernible in the soft glow of the porch light filtering through the bedroom curtains. He had come home angry-- just about as angry as he'd ever been-- and he knew that sleep would not come with his mind still clicking along at about ninety miles an hour. Better to try to walk it off, he thought, since I can't shoot anybody over it. At least not yet.

As he gently rose from the bed, his wife stirred. He froze, and soon her breathing resumed its regular pattern. No need to disturb her anymore than he already had tonight. The meeting had been stormy and had run on into the late evening. Afterwards, he and his friends had refought the arguments for almost an hour. And yet, when he got home, his wife was waiting up (the kids had long ago been put to bed for it was a school night). Amy was anxious to hear what had happened with the Congressman. Bob told her in clipped, furious sentences and her anger rose to meet his with the re-telling. A half-hour later they had turned in, but Bob was too tired and angry to sleep. As Bob collected his pants and shirt from the chair, the clock clicked over to 1:47.

Ten minutes later, he was walking toward downtown in the New Mexico spring night. It was chilly, as it usually is when the sun goes down in the desert, and he was wearing his work jacket. Like most folks in Hobbs, Bob made his money working in the "oil patch". Times had been pretty thin for a while, but now that the price of oil was up thanks to OPEC, things were picking up in the oil and gas business all over the Southwest. It wasn't anyone messing with his money that made Bob Stone mad this night. It was someone messing with his God-given liberty.

They were being sold out. That was the long and short of it. Oh, the Congressman put on a long face, and swore it wasn't any of HIS doing, but they were being sold out, no doubt about it. The Republicans had come up with their own gun control bill, trying to protect their left flank against Clinton-Gore in the upcoming Presidential race. From now on (and for the first time in American history), law-abiding private citizens were going to have to ask the federal government's permission to sell a firearm to another law-abiding private citizen. Not even King George the Third had been so grasping. In addition, there would be no more "high-capacity" rifle or pistol magazines imported. ("High-capacity" meant greater than ten rounds.) Domestic production had already been forbidden in the so-called "assault weapons ban." George "Dubya", the Congressman said, insisted upon it, and the Republican majority leaders in Congress were going to go along. The latest shooting of children by other children (read: "gang members") at the national Zoo in Washington, D.C. hadn't helped.

"But don't they realize that D.C. has the strictest gun control laws in the country?" someone behind Bob had shouted. "How will passing one more law help that?" It wasn't about reality, the Congressman sighed, it was about perceptions. And he didn't have to add that the antigun liberal media had the corner on perception-making.

Bob had listened quietly for over two hours. He'd had enough and now rose to his feet. "But WE put you Republican jerks in power!" he half-shouted. "WE made you a majority party in '94 because you told us you'd try to roll back the Clinton gun-control agenda. Even Clinton blamed the Brady and so-called "Assault Weapons Ban" laws for the Democrat's loss in '94. It was gunowners who put you in power, and kept you in power these past six years, and now you're selling us out! Why don't you look up how much money Lea County gunowners gave you and your Republican brothers over the past six years?"

The Congressman opened his mouth to reply, but Bob cut him off in a low, determined tone: "But I'll tell you one thing, Mr. Republican Congressman, you'll never get another stinking dime out of me or my friends! We won't pay you for the privilege of pissing on our backs and telling us it's raining!" The room erupted into loud clapping and cheers.

Almost drowned out in the din, the Congressman cried: "But it's not MY fault!".

"Whose is it then?" three or four people shot back at him, almost in unison.

The Congressman had the look of a deer in the headlights of an oncoming truck. He had come here prepared to talk about Social Security, but nearly every question had been about gun control. Reaching for an answer that wouldn't be a mistake in front of this hostile crowd, he came up with: "The Columbine killers. Everything changed after Columbine." Wrong answer.

The room erupted. Someone threw an empty coffee cup that landed well short of the Congressman. Bob was back up on his feet, shouting full-throat this time: "That's a load of crap and you know it! When your Republican bosses in the House came to you with this treason, did you tell them that passing it would violate your oath to uphold the Constitution and that you would be forced to resign from their party if they went ahead with it?!? Well, did you?!?"

The shouted question cut through the air and the crowd quieted, wanting to hear the answer. The Congressman was silent, looking down at the empty coffee cup on the floor.

Bob repeated the challenge: "Well, did you?"

The Congressman stirred from his appreciation of the trash on the floor to ask, "Did I what?"

"I think you heard me the first time, Congressman, but I'll repeat it so we can get an answer: When the House Republican leadership told you they intended to pass this treasonable bill, did you tell them that it would violate your oath to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States' and that you would be forced to resign from their party if they went ahead with it?"

The Congressman hesitated, then answered: "Well, uh, no. Look, if I resigned my seat every time a vote didn't go my way..."

Bob cut him off: "I didn't say 'resign your seat', Congressman. I said, 'resign the party'. The people of this district sent you up there. You took an oath to uphold the Constitution. Your party is about to assist in the destruction of one important part of that Constitution. If you resign out of principle and become an Independent, I feel sure that the people of this district will return to your office when it comes time for re-election. So let me re-phrase the question: When you go back to Washington, will you seek out the House leadership and tell them that if they pass this bill, you intend to resign their party and become an independent because you refuse to be a party to treason?"

The Congressman's aide crossed over and, shielding the microphone, whispered something in the Congressman's ear. The Congressman nodded. The aide returned to the sidelines as Hobbs police officers began to filter into the room from the side and rear doors. The aide had summoned them on his portable phone the moment the coffee cup was thrown.

The Congressman leaned into the microphone, "Well, I'll have to think about it."

Bob wouldn't let it go. "What's to think about?" he shot back. "Either you have principles or you don't. If you don't, have the guts to say so now."

The Congressman shook his head. "I said I'll have to think about it. What you're asking is pretty extreme..."

"Extreme?!?" Bob countered. "Extreme?!?. Congressman, you ain't even close to seein' 'extreme' yet. Don't you realize that if you don't find the guts to stop these treasonable SOBs in Congress, and that if the judiciary doesn't have the guts to stop them in the courts, that someday soon gun-owners like the ones in this room are going to have to stop them in the streets with rifles in our hands? Congressman, you'd better pray you never see 'extreme', for if you do it'll take more than all the cops in Hobbs to protect you from the widows and orphans of the men who will die fighting to preserve the God-given liberty you didn't have the guts to risk your precious political career for!"

The room erupted once again, the cops moved to the front, and the Congressman departed out a side door, almost as fast as it takes to tell. And now, four hours later, Bob was still furious.

They don't roll up the sidewalks at sundown in Hobbs, but the streets were fairly deserted this time of night, or morning actually. Even the cops who usually patrolled every twenty minutes or so in the business district Bob was walking through were busy on drunk and disorderly patrol over on Del Paso or out on Bender Street (no pun intended). The bars close in New Mexico at 2:00 A.M. by state law, so between 2 and 3 is often the night shift patrolman's busiest time. As it turned out, that was a good thing for Bob.

To be truthful about it, Bob was still so mad he wasn't paying a whole lot of attention where he was walking. Later, he would attribute his arrival at the scene of the crime to either his subconscious mind or the hand of God. But all of sudden, without knowing why, he stopped and looked up from his thoughts. And there, smack in front of him, was 509 East Broadway. Now as it happens, 509 East Broadway, Hobbs, New Mexico, is a modest, well-kept building with sort-of old-fashioned windows flanking the entrance. It also happens to be the headquarters of the Lea County Republican Party.

Now Bob Stone was a church-going, law-abiding fellow. Oh, he'd done his share of tearing around violating traffic laws when he was young and stupid, but never anything serious. A Lea County boy born and bred, the only time he'd seen the inside of the local jail was when he'd bailed out Manny, his buddy from the gas plant, when Manny had been busted for driving drunk on Bender Street at 2:10 in the morning. But as Bob Stone looked up at the sign proclaiming 509 East Broadway as the Heaquarters of the Republican Party of Lea County, New Mexico, a snatch of conversation from earlier in the evening (yesterday?) came back to him like divine inspiration.

Bill Dodd, a hunting buddy of Bob's, was a bit of a history buff. They had been standing around after the meeting, trying to answer the question: "What do we do now?"

"Well, ah don't know about y'all," (Bill was originally from Alabama) "but when the Sons of Liberty wanted to make a point back durin' the Revolution they'd get a bunch o' folks together and go pay the local Tories a call. Usually they'd just bust their windows (Bill pronounced it 'winders') with rocks and tell 'em the next time it'd go harder with 'em. The Tories usually got the message and moved away or shut up about likin' the King. Glass bein' so expensive back then and Tories bein' mostly rich folk, it seemed the natch-rel thing for the Sons to do. An' it worked. Maybe we ought-ter do the same thing to these gun-control puke-politicians."

They all had laughed, and the conversation moved on, but Bill Dodd's words now came back to Bob loud and clear. He looked at the windows, he looked at the sign, and he looked up and down the street. Nobody. Nothing but the street lights going through their paces for traffic that wasn't there. But what to use for a rock?

The streets of Hobbs, New Mexico, are pretty well kept. On any other night, the plan that was forming in Bob Stone's angry mind would have failed for lack of ammunition. But as it so happened (and later Bob ascribed it to none other than divine intervention) there at the curbside was a piece of broken concrete which had dropped off the back of a demolition company's truck about ten o'clock the previous morning. Somebody, Bob decided, wants me to do this.

Bob Stone picked up the chunk of concrete. Smooth on one side, it had been part of the parking lot of an old greasy spoon south of town that had been demolished to make way for a new BP super-station. He hefted the chunk. Yep, he decided, just about right.

Even so, Bob hesitated. He wasn't a vandal by training or inclination, and if a car had come by just then, even as angry as he was, he'd have given the whole thing up. But in hesitating, another thought came to him: How would anyone know WHY he had thrown the stone through the Republicans' window? If he intended to make a political statement, the rock would have to be accompanied by a message lest the act be dismissed as ordinary juvenile hi-jinks. His hands went to his jacket pockets, finding (and instantly rejecting) his note pad. First of all, it had his company logo on each sheet (now wouldn't that be bright?), and secondly, he had no way of attaching it to the chunk of concrete. Tape and rubber bands were not items he routinely carried. But when his right hand found the felt-tip marker he always carried in his left breast pocket, he knew that the missile would be the message.

Moving a few steps to take advantage of the street light, Bob rotated the chunk so its flat side was up, and wrote across the top of the flat, "Second Amend." (he ran out of room). So he wrote underneath the first line in smaller letters: "Shall Not Be Infringed." He re-capped the marker, and placed the pen back in his jacket pocket.

His resolve had returned. He was going to do it now, even if a car came by. Even if a cop came by. He was going to send the Republicans an old-fashioned Sons-of-Liberty message. He didn't even check again to see if the street was clear, though it was. He positioned himself at what he judged was the proper distance and heaved the concrete telegram as hard as he could. With what seemed to him to be an atomic crash, the chunk sailed through the window easily. No alarm went off. Hobbs wasn't that kind of town. But Bob Stone began to run away.

He ran west down East Broadway, passing the Martin Boot Company, then crossing over to the other side of the street. He kept on running-- laughing, scared, and immensely proud of himself. He ran until he was winded, past where East Broadway turns into West Broadway. A thought occurred to him then that it was probably a stupid thing to be running down the streets of Hobbs at just past two in the morning. If anybody did drive by they'd rightfully conclude he'd been up to no good. And he didn't have the right shoes on to be able to convince a curious cop he'd been out jogging.

So when he caught his breath, he began to walk west on West Broadway at a normal pace. He passed Desert Guns, his favorite local gunstore, owned by one Mark Stone (no relation, unfortunately, for Bob wouldn't have minded a family discount). He wanted to put as much distance between 509 East Broadway and himself before he made the wide turn that would take him back east to home. So he continued a block or so past the Western Motor Company, when he realized with a start that his night's work was not yet done. For there in front of him was 604 West Broadway: The Democratic Party Headquarters of Lea County, New Mexico.

It was true that the Republicans had taken his money, his time, and his support only to sell him out. Bob supposed that that was why he was so angered at the Republican betrayal-- he expected more of them. You didn't expect your so-called friends to stab you in the back. But the Republicans in truth were only half the problem. It was the Clintonista Democrats who had brought the country to this state. And while it was true that Democrats could no more be blamed for stealing the rights, liberties and tax money of their fellow citizens than rattlesnakes could be blamed for biting (it was, after all, their declared mission in life), their windows deserved breaking nonetheless. Indeed, Bob reflected with a silent laugh that although he had killed many a rattlesnake in the desert around Hobbs he had not as yet killed a Democrat, although Democrats were an infinitely a greater threat to peace and the Republic. Well, there's a time and place for everything, Bob decided. Tonight, he would merely break their windows.

And as he stood contemplating the windows at 604 West Broadway, he noted to his satisfaction that they were nice big, expensive plate glass windows. It would cost the Democrats much more to replace these than it would the Republicans to fix their modest, old-fashioned window panes. This, Bob Stone thought, was more than fitting. But the breaking need a bit more preparation. Bigger rocks, perhaps. No, not bigger rocks, just more preparation. Bob fingered the automatic center punch in his work jacket pocket. Yeah, he decided, just the right instrument of destruction for these tempered-glass targets.

He went to the alley behind the building foraging for ammunition and found two new bricks pre-positioned there by what Bob Stone was now convinced was the hand of the Almighty. It could not have been by accident, of that he was certain. Bob pulled out his marker and wrote, lazy-dazy, winding the letters around the holes in the brick: "Second Amendment-- Shall Not Be Infringed."

Somewhat stealthier now, he checked the street before sidling up to the windows. To each he gave several preparatory hits with the automatic center punch. Spiderwebs of fractured glass appeared on each window. Then, checking the empty street one last time, he backed away from the windows and heaved the bricks one after the other with all the speed his overage pitching arm could muster. If the Republican window had sounded like an atomic bomb, these sounded like two hydrogen bombs, and Bob gave into his fear just long enough to run across the street. As the last shards of the windows were still falling, giving way to gravity and dropping with lesser explosions, Bob began to control his fear and slowed to a walk.

And so it was that he walked casually all the way home. As he passed one of the cross streets he noticed blue lights down toward East Broadway. He smiled, and walked just a bit faster. His wife stirred slightly when he eased himself back into bed, but Bob Stone had cured his angry insomnia and, happy now to be a criminal, he fell instantly asleep. Sleeping, he would later say to himself, the sleep of the just.

It all might have ended there had it not been for an editor at the local paper, the Hobbs News-Sun, who along with his college education had acquired a virulent liberal bias about things such as gun-control. Determined to show-case the "lawlessness" of gunowners, he assigned himself as the reporter on the story and also wrote the first of several (he thought stinging) editorials. The story was picked up by the state Associated Press, and eventually made its way to USA Today and the New York Times.

As if to prove that the Law of Unintended Consequences was alive and well, it was when the story went national that strange things began to happen. In Marion County, Ohio, somebody who read the USA Today story decided that breaking the windows of Democrats and Republicans was a pretty good idea. So did all his buddies at the Whirlpool plant.

As a matter of fact, it was about a baker's-dozen Buckeyes who first decoyed the cops, then smashed every window in both party headquarters the next night. Some were broken with nicely inscribed smooth stones that, like little David, they had fished out of a stream. On each was written the entire text of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Windows too high, small or inconvenient to reach with stones were finished off with ball bearings fired from slingshots or baseball bats.

In lightning raids two nights later, the same crew smashed the windows of both party's' headquarters in three neighboring counties. It was bipartisan vandalism, and more news stories were generated. Fearing that the rock-throwers would come to his house, the chairman of the Marion County Republican Party resigned. When his Democrat counterpart did not, someone broke the windows in his house, too. One of the more thoughtful vandals taped the business card of a local glass company to his front door.

With "The Marion Incident", window-breaking on behalf of the Constitution began to spread. In about four weeks, 194 local headquarters of both parties were "ventilated" with rocks, bricks, concrete blocks, shotputs, lead weights, tire irons, antique civil war cannon balls and in the case of one Democratic party headquarters in Michigan, a twenty-pound brass jackass of unknown origin. Attached to, or written upon, each was the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

Similar missiles found glass targets at the homes of no fewer than 56 politicians of both parties who had been prominent supporters of gun-control.

Rewards were offered-- none was collected. Only in a few cases were the perpetrators caught, and most of those were teenage sons of well-known gun owners. In one case in Texas, the windows were broken publicly by a citizen who sought arrest for his civil disobedience. In a jury trial, he was quickly acquitted.

"The Window War" became nightly fodder for the television talking heads. And with more publicity came more broken windows. Commentators on the left condemned "vigilante justice" and "lawlessness" and called for political window-breaking to be classified as a "hate crime." Commentators on the right spoke against lawlessness more softly, pointing out that it was the Clintonistas who had made a business of flouting the rule of law (most recently in the case of Elian Gonzalez), and that destroying windows was probably a lesser crime than destroying the Constitution. And everyone agreed with MSNBC's "Hardball" Chris Matthews, a life-long Democrat, when he observed: "These are all gun-owners breaking the law. I suppose we should be grateful they're using rocks."

The polls sent the politicians mixed signals about how the public felt about The Window War. Initially overwhelmingly disapproving of such vandalism, the numbers began to shift as the "War" went on, the issues that had prompted the window-breaking became better known and nothing but windows were being harmed. There was a natural sympathy streak in many Americans for those who fought city hall.

Exactly one month after Bob Stone broke his first window at 509 East Broadway, copy-cat incidents were happening ten or twenty times a night with no end in sight. After two buckets, one containing rocks and the other containing a mixture of tar and feathers, were delivered to the Mississippi home of Senator Trent Lott, the Majority Leader decided, (with the concurrence of "Dubya"), that the political price of Republican gun-control had grown too high. It wasn't the implied threat that got to Lott so much as the fact that the card which accompanied the buckets was signed by some of his campaign contributors, one of whom was a distant relative. With the help of several relieved Democrats, Lott killed the bill.

With the Window War threatening to muddy up his campaign for President, Candidate "Dubya" called Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America (it was widely recognized that the "rockers" were not listening to the National Rifle Association, which they regarded as a sell-out organization) and quietly promised that if he was elected he would sign a bill that rolled back all of the Clinton-era gun control laws if Pratt could just guarantee that no more windows would be broken. Since the window-breakers weren't under his control either, Pratt said he couldn't promise anything, but he would try.

Three days after Senator Lott killed the bill, the last "shot" was fired in the Window War by twenty members of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in New York who snuck up on the home of the Empire State's virulently anti-gun Attorney General while he was away and peppered it with Revolutionary War musket balls fired from Gamo "Wrist-Rocket" slingshots. Police responding to the alarm found a big folding sign-board blocking the driveway. It read: "Sue this!"

Across the country, the volunteer soldiers of The Window War read the papers, talked among themselves, and decided to await further developments with a truce. The only Americans who were sad to see the rocks stop flying were the owners of the nation's glass companies.

The howling of Clinton, Gore, Schumer, Feinstein and Company sounded like a banshee chorus but it could not resurrect the bill. Nor could they make it an effective campaign issue against Bush--he had condemned the vandalism in the strongest terms. After George "Dubya" Bush was elected President, and the Republicans retained control of the Congress, the tide of gun control receded. It wasn't that Dubya and his GOP colleagues had "discovered" any principles, they were simply smart enough to recognize that that particular political skunk was best left in the bucket. The reminder that political decisions sometimes have personal consequences acted like a tonic on Republicans and Democrats alike.

The Window War was won, and to the astonishment of many gun owners, no one had been killed. It had long been thought that bloodshed would be required to make the liberals understand that God-given rights are not compromisable. All it had taken was a few hundred rocks and other missiles and one brass jackass.

Many men and women would later claim to have been window-breakers, ten times as many as there probably were. But back in Hobbs, no one ever knew who broke the first window in the gun-control war, and that was just fine with Bob Stone. The only person he ever told was his wife, Amy. Together, they decided to keep Bob's foray into petty crime just between themselves. Neither of them was sure just how they could explain their Daddy's night of window-breaking to the kids.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Author's Postscript: The story above is one possible future for this country. There are others far worse. As J.R. Nyquist recently wrote of the Elian Gonzalez federal kidnapping:

"Specific events, regardless of their actual importance to history, sometimes capture the human imagination. In doing this, they become rallying points for masses of people. They become pivotal to political careers. Such events can bring about the collapse of governments or determine the outcome of elections....Except for clueless and apathetic persons, America has been split into two hostile ideological camps. One is the anti-communist or anti-statist camp, which looks to traditional moral values, the Constitution, a strong family unit and the free market. The other camp is socialist or "progressive" in its outlook, globalist and environmentalist in its policies."

There is no reconciling the two futures these camps represent. One or the other will win in the end. The war up to now has been waged in the political and social arena. The time is fast approaching when this political and social "war" will spill over into armed conflict-- real civil war. If it does, it will happen mostly because everyone thinks it impossible. For sixty years, the liberals have used our respect for the law against us. Each time they moved the line of law to further their agenda, breaking off a bit of the Constitution, we, as law-abiding citizens have backed up grumbling but complying. And why should they stop pushing us back from our God-given liberties? We've never pushed back to stop them. We have been TOO law-abiding.

Remember one thing: Adolf Hitler was elected, and the Nazis passed laws justifying every horrible act they later committed. In such a country, law-breaking is not a crime but a virtue. Before we get too far down that road, perhaps a little window-breaking is in order. Waiting too late to oppose tyranny has always led to bloodshed. Let us avoid that if we can. But history holds such windows of opportunity open only so long, and ours is rapidly closing. Perhaps by breaking the window now, we can escape the horrible alternative. And if in the unlikely event my modest story should become fact, somewhere The Sons of Liberty will be smiling.

I apologize for the light postings. I am coming off of a four day extended Reserve fun-in-the-sun weekend and had very little time for much of anything other than that this weekend. Mr. Bob Wright was so kind as to put this on my Facebook site and I would like share it with you here.

OPSEC is a word that gets used and misused a lot in our movement. Here is a basic outline to help define what it is and how you can implement it

1. Define OPSEC.

a. OPSEC is a process of analyzing friendly actions pursuant to military operations and other activities to-

(1) Identify those friendly actions that can be observed by the threat.

(2) Determine indicators that the threat might obtain that could be interpreted or pieced together to derive critical information in time to be useful.

(3) Select and execute measures that eliminate or reduce to an acceptable level the vulnerabilities of friendly actions to the threat exploitation.

b. OPSEC maintains essential secrecy, which is the condition achieved by the denial of critical information to the threat. Threat possession of critical information can prevent friendly mission accomplishment. Thus, essential secrecy is a necessary prerequisite for effective operations. Essential secrecy depends on the combination of two conditions:

(2) Provide OPSEC to deny the threat critical information, which is always sensitive and often unclassified.

2. Define indicators.

a. Indicators are data derived from open sources or from detectable actions that the threat can piece together or interpret to reach conclusions or official estimates concerning friendly intentions, capabilities, or activities. They are also activities that result from military operations. Indicators contribute to the determination of friendly courses of action. Their identification and interpretation are critical tasks of the threat operations. Indicators can be used in many ways. For example, if the commander wants the threat to think one way but, in reality plans on doing something entirely different, he may give him a false indicator (such as massing a smaller force to disguise a larger objective).

b. There are three types of indicators:

(1) Profile indicators show how activities are normally conducted. Profiles are developed by looking at all aspects of friendly operations from the viewpoint of the threat. The friendly profile must include all of those things that, if detected by the threat, could provide information concerning our capabilities, vulnerabilities, and intentions.

(a) Patterns are stereotyped actions that occur so habitually that they can cue an observer to either the type of military unit or activity, its identity, capabilities, or intent. The Army tends to do things in the same way (SOP). This causes patterns that the threat looks for so he can predict intentions.

(b) Signatures result from the presence of a unit or activity on the battlefield. Signatures are detected because different units have different types of equipment, are of different sizes, emit different electronic signals, and have different noises associated with them.

(2) Deviation indicators, which highlight contrasts to normal activity, help the threat gain appreciation about intentions, preparations, time, and place.

(3) Tip-off indicators draw attention to information that otherwise might pass unnoticed. These are most significant when they warn the threat of impending activity. This warning allows the threat to pay closer attention and to task additional collection assets.

3. Identify threat capabilities.

a. The threat consists of multiple and overlapping collection efforts targeted against all sources of Army information. The threat devotes significant resources to monitor U.S. military operations and activities on a daily basis. The threat can produce reliable information on the U.S. military and its capabilities, intentions, and vulnerabilities. The threat is also shifting the emphasis in targeting. Foreign targeting of American technology is increasing for economic as well as military reasons. Technology transfer will continue to remain a major concern in the future.

(4) Measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) is scientific and technical intelligence obtained by quantitative and qualitative analysis of data derived from technical sensors for the purpose of identifying any distinctive features associated with the source, emitter, or sender and to facilitate subsequent identification or measurement.

c. Two additional areas of concern:

(1) Technology transfer, which has led to significant enhancement of military-industrial capabilities at the expense of the United States.

(2) Non-traditional threats. Past and present allies are potential intelligence threats. They can engage in intelligence collection activities to gain economic or political advantage, which is not in the best interest of the United States.

5. Implement the OPSEC Process. OPSEC has five steps that apply to any plan, operation, program, project, or activity. They provide a framework for the systematic process necessary to identify, analyze, and protect information for essential secrecy. The process is continuous. It considers the changing nature of the threat and friendly vulnerabilities throughout the operation. It uses the following steps, but does not have to follow them in a particular sequence.

(2) Identify key questions that threat officials are likely to ask about friendly intentions, capabilities, and activities, so they can obtain answers critical to their operational effectiveness. To determine sensitive aspects of our operations, ask "If known by the threat, what information and what actions could compromise friendly operations or identify us?"

(1) Identify OPSEC vulnerabilities. It is absolutely necessary that you know the threat. This information will assist in determining vulnerabilities to the threat and it will become even more important when the time comes to implement countermeasures or deception measures.

(2) Examine each part of the operation to find OPSEC indicators. Compare those indicators with the threat collection capabilities. A vulnerability exists when the threat can collect an indicator, correctly analyze the information, make a decision, and take timely action to degrade friendly operations.

c. Conduct an analysis of vulnerabilities.

(1) Identify possible OPSEC measures for each vulnerability.

(2) Select at least one OPSEC measure for each vulnerability.

(3) Assess the sufficiency of routine security measures (personnel, physical, cryptographic, document, special access, and automated information systems). This will provide OPSEC measures for some vulnerabilities.

d. Perform risk assessment. The purpose of this step is to select OPSEC measures for implementation. This step is designed to determine if a risk to an operation's success exists should the threat detect friendly indicators, patterns, or signatures. Only the commander responsible for the mission can make this decision. He must balance the risk of operational failure against the cost of OPSEC measures.

(1) Consider the impact of an OPSEC measure on operational efficiency.

(2) Consider the probable risk to mission success (effectiveness) if the unit does not implement an OPSEC measure.

(3) Consider the probable risk to mission success if an OPSEC measure does not work.

(4) Decide which, if any, OPSEC measures to implement and when to do so.

(5) Check the interaction of OPSEC measures. Ensure that a measure to protect a specific piece of critical information does not unwittingly provide an indicator of another.

(1) Implement measures that require immediate action. This applies to current operations as well as planning and preparation for future ones.

(2) Document or task OPSEC measures by using an OPSEC annex to the OPLAN/OPORD.

(3) Brief OPSEC requirements to planners, participants, and support personnel.

Note. OPSEC measures are command-directed actions executed by individuals, who must be aware of their responsibilities.

(4) Monitor OPSEC measures during execution. Monitoring is a continuous process of evaluating intelligence and counterintelligence. It is necessary to monitor countermeasures for effectiveness because unevaluated countermeasures can lead to a false and dangerous sense of security.

(5) Make adjustments to improve the effectiveness of existing measures. These adjustments are necessary to obtain the best protection for our military operations.

6. Define OPSEC review, assessment, and survey.

a. OPSEC review is an evaluation of a document to ensure protection of sensitive or critical information.

b. OPSEC assessment is an analysis of an operation, activity, exercise, or support function to determine the overall OPSEC posture and to evaluate the degree of compliance of subordinate organizations with the published OPSEC plan or OPSEC program.

c. OPSEC survey is a method to determine if there is adequate protection of critical information during planning, preparations, execution, and post-execution phases of any operation or activity. It analyzes all associated functions to identify sources of information, what they disclose, and what can be derived from the information.

Friday, July 8, 2016

I am sure the word "allegedly" should be used as a qualifier, but I think we can stick a fork in this one. It's done. The difference is our man-of-the-hour is a former Soldier. This is also coming on the heels of a call from Al Qeada to kill hetero white people. The fact that is is stealing headlines and short attention spans of the Hoi Polloi with Her Holiness, The Hillary's minor inconvenience.

“The suspect said he was upset with white people and wanted to kill white people, especially white officers,” Brown said.

1. The Suspect Told Police He Was Not Affiliated With Any Groups & He ‘Did This Alone’

2. His Facebook Page Includes a ‘Black Power’ Poster

Ya don't say? What are the odds?

3. Police Are Still Searching Until they Determine There Are No Outstanding Suspects, the Chief Said

B.S. alert again. You cannot tell me that Private Black Hitler can knock out almost two dozen cops and civilians.

4. 4. The Slain Officers Include 4 From the Dallas PD & 1 From the City’s Transit Authority Police

5. 5. Police Took Part in the Planning of the Peaceful Rally & March, the Chief Says

BTW. Yes, black nationalism is very much alive in the military. The military is a microcosm where you get everything under the sun. Farm boys from Iowa that never laid eyes on a black person to the former prostitute from South Central. And yes, they also have the supremacist elements. Just as in the civilian world, some are obviously more tolerated than others.

"Gunfire broke out as demonstrators marched through the city, sending them fleeing for cover."

"The protests were sparked by the deaths of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana."Sipsey prediction: Safe money is that they used "AR style high powered" rifles. Gotta keep moving that goal post down the line. This is, of course, just more window dressing for the big show. Expect two things to happen. The first is that they will increase police funding in big cities to "root out snipers". And the second is the left remembered that they can kill at a distance and get away with it.Yep, it is going to be a long hot summer.

I know Jeff and the Old Man sparred very publicly once or twice regarding maintaining firearms freedom. The subject of going to church armed is a topic that you should not have to bring up in Western Civilization, but as you look outside today, I am not sure if we can call it that anymore. It was not so long ago in American history that the presence of weapons in a church was common place, though obviously for completely different reasons. It looks like those days are coming back.

MBV note: Some of the best classes I have run were OPSEC classes. I did them in Germany and in the States. After a small class instruction, I would break the class up into small groups and send them out on missions to get the Soldiers better aquainted with the mindset of the spy or terrorist. One of the side missions was to get as many people as possible to give them sensitive information. One group actually came back with copies from and misplaced hotel booking log. Elicitation is anywhere you can find it. Or, conversely, anywhere it can find you.

Something we don’t talk about often enough–and we should–is the concept of elicitation, or the process of getting someone to tell you information without them realizing they’re giving it to you. The biggest problem with it is simple: It’s getting done TO us a lot more than we’re doing it to anyone else. That needs to change.

There are several ways to elicit information from someone, and they range from the blatantly obvious instant gratification type to the completely sneaky, long-game, over time version. You should be familiar with both–especially because the folks with the .gov after their name have all kinds of time to do it. Let’s take a closer look.Why Does Elicitation Work?

The beauty of elicitation is that it isn’t some kind of magic. It’s simply leveraging and exploiting facets of people’s personality, and the basic things that exist in human nature. In our quest to learn from everyone, and not just the people we like, we’re going to look at the FBI’s page on elicitation (I refuse to link to it, however. You can find it yourself). Here’s a list of traits that the FBI likes to exploit:

A desire to be polite and helpful, even to strangers or new acquaintances

A desire to appear well informed, especially about our profession

A desire to feel appreciated and believe we are contributing to something important

A tendency to expand on a topic when given praise or encouragement; to show off

A tendency to gossip

A tendency to correct others

A tendency to underestimate the value of the information being sought or given, especially if we are unfamiliar with how else that information could be used

A tendency to believe others are honest; a disinclination to be suspicious of others

A tendency to answer truthfully when asked an “honest” question

A desire to convert someone to our opinion

Go click on the link to learn more how to identify and combat it (and send some site traffic her way). While you are there, check out the Lessons for Vetting post too.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

"Senator Schumer contends that this inconvenience [of removing the Second Amendment] can be gotten round by the purported recognition of an “emergency powers” doctrine. While history and common sense say the Framers’ idea of a crisis was the specter of government usurpation of the people’s liberties (that’s the reason we have a Bill of Rights), the Left turns this notion on its head: A crisis becomes the reason for government to restrict our liberties — for our own good, of course."

"In support of this proposition, Schumer cited the the Fourth Amendment. He claims that its protections are not fully enforced in various emergency situations. By this, he means that there are times when police are not required to obtain judicial warrants or show probable cause of a crime before conducting a search or seizure. The Second Amendment, he contends, must be similarly flexible."

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.